With 110 breweries receiving gold, silver, or bronze, the Washington Beer Awards announces the winners.
Press Release
Seattle, WA … Specialty Competitions LLC is proud to release the results of the tenth annual Washington Beer Awards®. This year 110 Washington breweries received recognition of gold, silver, and bronze medals in 72 award category groupings.
The results for this Washington-only professional beer competition were announced on November 3rd at the Washington Craft Beer Summit at the Puyallup Fairgrounds where some of Washington’s best brewers received medals for their award-winning beers.
The judging for the Washington Beer Awards was held on September 9th and 10th at Elliott Bay Public House & Brewery in Lake City. The panels of trained judges had to evaluate 1,276 beers from 175 breweries spanning 139 unique styles from the Brewers Association Beer Style Guidelines for technical and stylistic excellence.
The competition was held with the endorsement of the Washington Beer Commission and Washington Brewers Guild as a way to celebrate Washington’s growing brewing culture and recognize excellence in the craft. All of Washington’s craft breweries were invited to submit entries to the competition held in a similar format to other craft beer competitions like the Great American Beer Festival® and World Beer Cup®.
Four special awards, the Very Small, Small, Mid-Sized and Large Breweries of the Year, were presented to breweries who won numerous medals in many categories. Audacity Brewing edged out a win as the Very Small Brewery of the Year with two medals. Victory 23 Craft Brewery won the small brewery of the year with three gold medals, including a repeat gold in the American-Style IPA category. Grains of Wrath Brewing had a dominant performance with three golds, a silver, and three bronze medals to win the Mid-Sized Brewery of the Year category. The Large Brewery of the Year was won by Icicle Brewing Company with four gold medals and two bronze medals, including a gold in Juicy or Hazy IPAs.
A few special awards were also providing recognizing some unique Washington brewing excellence. Figurehead Brewing Company won a gold in the “Pro-Am” category for a barrel aged wheatwine called “Wonder Woman Wheatwine” that was developed by Washington homebrewer Laura Meyer and scaled up for commercial production. Formula Brewing and Halcyon Brewing collaborated on an experimental beer leveraging sake yeast called “Many Little Steps” which won gold in this year’s “Collaboration Beer” category.
More information on the competition and the complete list of results can be found at www.wabeerawards.com/winners. Watch for Washington’s award-winning beers marked at your local craft beer bars and beer stores and get ready for the Washington Beer Awards to return in 2024 where new winners will be decided!
